Deception
by displacedtexan
Summary: Kotoko and Naoki fight all the time, and Mrs. Irie despairs of them ever getting together. But all is not as it seems...


A/N1: Just a short one.

A/N2: Still don't own Itazura na Kiss.

* * *

Dinner hour at the Irie house proceeded in what had become the typical fashion for the past three months.

"Could you please pass the fish?"

"You'd better take an extra large helping. Remember, you have a math test coming up and need all the help you can get."

"Arrogant asshole," Kotoko muttered.

Naoki laughed nastily. "Always stooping to personal insults."

"You're lucky I don't like to waste food, or this would be all over you!"

"Now, would that be because you abhor violence or because you're a glutton?"

The entire table breathed a sigh of relief when she just stuck out her tongue at him, and the warring pair relapsed into silence; an uncomfortable silence, but at least it was without open animosity.

Mrs. Irie sighed as the younger generation headed upstairs, Yuuki trailing the high schoolers at a wary distance. "I simply don't understand how my wonderful plans went so awry! I believed they were perfect for each other!"

"Now, dear," Mr. Irie cleared his throat, "you know that Nao has always had a mind of his own. It never does any good trying to make plans for him."

"But dear Kotoko-chan said that she liked him right after she and Ai-san moved in! And now they act as if they were members of rival gangs!"

"I know," he shook his head, "young people these days!"

* * *

A couple of hours later, when Mrs. Irie leaned an ear to the door of Kotoko's room, they were still at it.

"You can take your polynomial functions and stick them where the sun don't shine!"

"Well, they'd at least get better use than _you_ made of them. How in the world did you come up with this answer?!"

With yet another mournful sigh for her disappointed matchmaking efforts, she left the snacks on the floor after giving her signature knock and retreated back to the kitchen. "It's puzzling that Onii-chan still helps her with schoolwork, considering all that arguing," she murmured.

Kotoko, kicking the door closed behind her after picking up the tray, asked, "How much longer do you think we can keep this up?"

* * *

It had happened three days into their initial tutoring session: the one prompted by blackmail to aid in mid-terms. Looking at Naoki's aggravated face as he graded her latest worksheet, Kotoko had decided that enough was enough.

"Here!" She fumbled in her purse. "Even though I'd really like to make better grades, you're just full of dislike for me. I don't like this atmosphere." She held out the disputed photograph. "Let's call this quits; I'd rather take make-up classes."

"What?" He blinked at her. "You don't want to pass?"

"Weren't you listening, genius? I know you don't like me, and this is just making you not like me even more. I'm not going to force you to continue."

Naoki's sense of curiosity prevented him from reaching immediately for the picture. "So, you think doing _this_ will make me like you?"

"No, baka!" she almost shouted. "I just don't want you to remember me as a blackmailer." She pouted. "I really didn't intend to do it. I just thought if you got to know me better that you'd treat me a little nicer. Well, that plan crashed and burned."

"How can I be sure that you haven't make a copy of that picture?" he inquired.

"Ai!" Kotoko slapped her forehead. "Why didn't I think of that? This will probably the only picture I'll ever have of you. Wait a minute." She pulled her hand back and fumbled for her phone with the other.

"Oh, no, you don't!" He leaned over to grab the photo and lost his balance. He ended up on top of her, and their lips met briefly. "Huh," he said as he raised his head.

"What?" Her hand touched her lips, a little sore because he had fallen pretty hard. "That was my first kiss!" she wailed.

"Oh, for—!" Tasting metal, he ran a finger inside his mouth and looked at a smear of red. "Don't make such a commotion about it."

"Blood! You're bleeding! Oh my goodness, we've got to stop it!" She wiggled around trying to reach the tissue box on the nightstand.

"The human body has five liters of blood. I'm not going to die from losing a few drops."

"But darn! It might swell up! Or scar!" She touched his lip gingerly. "And you're so good-looking. You'll have to come up with a story for what happened."

"Isn't the usual excuse walking into a door?" he hazarded while his mind analyzed how the movements of her soft fingers were sending little shivers down his body.

"No, no one will believe that of you," she said absently, attention still on his injury. "You're too coordinated. That's something I would do!"

"And how about you?" His hand explored her now-still mouth, which up until a moment ago had been constantly moving in speech. "Are you injured?"

"Um, ah, no?" Her brain, not the sharpest at the best of times, seemed to be getting hazier and hazier. "Irie-kun," she said hesitantly, "what are you doing?"

"I'm not quite sure," he replied slowly, looking into her eyes, which widened as he drew closer. "Let's call it a scientific experiment."

* * *

Naoki took the tray from her. "I don't know, but Mom will eventually fix those squeaky stairs I loosened, and we won't have any warning of her approach."

"There'll be hell to pay then." Kotoko rolled her eyes.

"No kidding. And really, 'where the sun don't shine'?"

She grinned cheekily at him. "I thought it was a good line. And that's pretty much how I feel about math."

"But you're regularly making the top one hundred now."

"It could be because of better motivation." She wrinkled her nose at him.

"Ah, yes, you haven't received your reward for this paper, have you?" At that point he resumed his new favorite occupation: kissing his girlfriend.

* * *

A/N3: This is just a one-shot. NOT going to be continued. But I just wanted to explore what would have happened if hormones had gotten involved...


End file.
